Pomaks in Turkey and their socio - cultural harmonization process

It can be observed that various character discriminations and particular typologies are made among the communities and even the intelligentsias of all nations. Scientifically called as "Racial Preconception", it is something done by people for practical reasons, but in fact, noting more than a character classification that generally misjudges. The migrations and population exchanges from Balkans, especially from Bulgaria, to our country both in Ottoman period and after the Republic period occurred as a result of these classifications. The cultural problems of Turks, who lived in Balkans generally resulted with death and, to say the least, they were subjected to assimilation. Neither they were ethnically accepted, nor were they allowed to live dissimilarly. In this process, the migrants, who were deterritorialized, were sent to Turkey, families were broken and a new life started for everyone. So, Pomaks that in Balkans are our cognates who were subjected to these processes. Both in Greece and in Bulgaria, they were forced to migrate by being subject to similar problems and they were even killed. They were forced for migration to leave the regions that they lived for hundreds of years and they were not permitted to preserve their cultures and beliefs in those regions. While Bulgarians characterize Pomaks as Muslim Bulgarians; similarly Greeks regarded them as Islamized Greeks. In both cases, although they consider them to be of the same nation, being Muslim did not prevent them to be accepted as "others". In this research, the ethnical and cultural origins of Pomaks, who live in Balkans, and also their migration processes, have been analyzed by assessing the Bulgarian and Greek thesis stated on them; and finally, whether they have problems in adapting their new lives, which they started in our country is evaluated by means of personal interviews and questionnaires.